Effie, a film based on the relationship between Victorian poet and artist, John Ruskin and his unfortunate wife Effie Gray will go into production next month. The film is written by Emma Thompson who will also play Lady Eastlake, and the Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan will be in the starring role of Gray.

Richard Laxton is directing and Thompson’s husband, Greg Wise, is to produce the film and play the part of Ruskin. According to thefancarpet he and Thompson asked Mulligan to take the part before her success in An Education:

“Carey has a rare quality of being open and unfettered. At the time Effie said she would have borne anything, had Ruskin just been kind. But I can’t play him as an ogre because the audience need to understand why she married this man.”

Ruskin and Gray’s unconsummated love affair will be central to the plot of the film. United on his wedding night in April 1848 with Effie Gray, the girl who had been the object of some of his most beautiful writing during their courtship, Ruskin suddenly realizes he has made a mistake and postpones the consummation.

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